Privacy and discretion are the hallmarks of one of Suffolk’s most distinguished country estates, the historic, 1,720-acre Rushbrooke estate, four miles from Bury St Edmunds and 18 miles from Newmarket, which is for sale as a whole through Bidwells in Cambridge (01223 559352) at a guide price of £24m.

‘It is rare indeed to find a true estate that combines all the essential components: a high-quality commercial-farming enterprise, a successful private stud farm built up by generations of the same family, a substantial residential property portfolio and an informal family shoot, also with development potential,’ says selling agent James Brooke, who describes Rushbrooke as ‘a walk-in property that will probably emerge as East Anglia’s estate sale of the year’.

The original Rushbrooke estate was owned by the Great Abbey of Bury St Edmunds until about 1180, when the land was granted to a Scotland de Rushbrooke. It eventually passed by marriage to the Jermyn family, who built Rushbrooke Hall in about 1500. The estate passed by marriage back into Rushbrooke hands and was owned by them until 1919, when it was split up and sold by public auction. The Hall was bought, in 1938, by Lord Rothschild, who was looking for a house within easy reach of Cambridge and went on to buy back the farms that had been sold away.

The result is the estate as it stands today, minus the Hall, which was severely damaged by fire and demolished in 1961. The main house is now the more manageable, seven-bedroom Home Farmhouse, which stands in a tranquil setting at the heart of the estate, surrounded by parkland and stud grazing, and is close to the moat of the original Rushbrooke Hall.

In addition to Home Farmhouse, two staff cottages and various ancillary accommodation, the estate boasts two secondary farm- houses and 26 other properties, mostly in Rushbrooke village, which, between them, generate a rental income of some £138,000 a year.

The guide price is £24 million. For further information please contact Bidwells on 01223 559 352.